Donald M. McGinnis '70, at age eight, looked out the back window
one morning and saw that his father had flooded the back yard at
their Toronto home. He also found a pair of skates hanging on his
bed post. The boy got the message and started skating that very
afternoon. Between 1966-70, Don McGinnis tended goal for the Brown
hockey teams, earning first-team All-East and first-team All-Ivy
honors, along with some superlatives from his coach, Jim Fullerton.
"When Don came to us he had no real weakness that had to be
corrected," Fullerton says. "What he did have was exceptional
quickness, high intelligence, a special knack for knowing how to
cut the angles, the ability to force the skater into committing
himself first, and about two tons of courage in his 5-5, 145-pound
frame. More than any other player I've coached, Don made the
complete study of the game of hockey. He not only became a master
at his own position, but he also made it a point to know all the
positions and what the players are supposed to do." High praise
indeed from Fullerton, who was one of the top goalies in the nation
himself during his days at Norwich. Fullerton was the one who
dubbed McGinnis "The Cat," in obvious reference to his quickness.
When I was in high school, I used to think that goal tending was
just quickness, but he drilled into me the importance of angles -
the art of the coming out of the cage to cut down on the shooters
angle. We'd work for hours just on that phase of the game." The Cat
learned his lessons well. In his first game with the Bruin Cubs he
kicked out 54 shots. It was more of the same sort of performance
for the next four years as McGinnis established himself as one of
Brown's finest net minders. Don McGinnis is living in Toronto,
Canada, where he works for the transportation office of the
Department of Veterans Affairs.